Frequently Asked Questions

What is GradCAS?

GradCAS™ is a Centralized Application Service (CAS™) that allows a student to apply to multiple graduate degree programs on one campus, or to multiple programs across multiple campuses, by submitting a single application for enrollment. The applicant is able to manage the entire process, including submission of supporting documentation, transcript(s) and recommendation requests, as well as answer additional unique questions asked by individual campuses and/or programs, including essays, personal statements, CVs/resumes or other documents of work samples. GradCAS is provided by Liaison International, the leader in application management for higher education. Liaison has powered Centralized Applications for more than 20 years and currently serves over 7,000 programs at more than 800 colleges and universities.

Do other schools use Centralized Application Services from Liaison?

Yes, more than 7,000 programs on over 800 college and university campuses leverage the same SaaS platform. Liaison manages more than 2,200,000 applications annually.

Does GradCAS have to be my primary application?

To optimize your use of GradCAS, it should serve as the primary application for your programs. Secondary or supplemental applications that are useful for your individual workflow can be maintained.

That said, there are significant benefits for the institution in using GradCAS as your primary application, including:

A single data source to manage for integration to your SIS and other systems.

Will using GradCAS increase the number of applicants to my school?

Evidence from participating schools suggests programs that participate in a CAS may expect an overall increase in applications of 10% or more, but individual increases will likely vary.

Will my school’s applicants be able to apply to other programs?

Yes, GradCAS provides applicants the ability to research and apply to multiple programs. Research suggests, due to the competitive nature of admissions, 62% of prospective students already apply to multiple programs. In this regard, a CAS is a value-added service to the applicant and to the participating programs.

Won’t applicants have to spend more money for the application process?

Not necessarily. The $24 processing fee for GradCAS applications in many instances can be offset by eliminating the redundancies that exist in today’s current model, such as transcript request fees, mailing fees, etc. Surveys of applicants repeatedly show that the benefits of applying through a CAS justify any fees associated with this service.

Can my existing CAS programs convert to GradCAS?

Liaison encourages programs eligible to join national, affinity-based CASs to participate in the services provided by their professional associations. Liaison will work with institutions interested in GradCAS to determine which programs are eligible for affinity-based CASs and which are a fit for GradCAS. Your institution will have an overview and access to all data in GradCAS and in all other CASs on campus.

Will GradCAS increase the workload of my school’s current staff?

GradCAS may give you the opportunity to reallocate your resources. You will likely be able to move away from clerical and administrative tasks to more valuable endeavors such as recruitment, marketing and relationship building. We are aware of no situation where staff have been eliminated due to a CAS.

Does participating in GradCAS mean that the school will experience a loss of revenue from current application fees included in our process?

You can still collect your current application fees. However, many institutions find that the cost offset of outsourcing the application management and document processing functions included in a CAS offering (scanning, GPA calculation, etc.) create additional opportunity to reclaim budget, or FTE headcounts, who are freed up to focus on more impactful enrollment projects and initiatives. Liaison will collect your application fee with the processing fee and dispatch the payment to your university or you can collect the application fee yourself.

Will GradCAS make admissions decisions for my school?

GradCAS does not make any admissions decisions. GradCAS is simply a mechanism to gather the data that you need to make admissions decisions from applicants. GradCAS will provide data and documents in a ready to review format as well as tools like rubric scoring, faculty evaluations and others that can be used in the evaluation of the applications. The service will not interpret or evaluate the eligibility of any applicant. The selection and admission of all applicants is the sole prerogative of each college or department.

What kind of support will my school be given during the onboarding and operations of GradCAS?

Liaison is committed to forming a partnership with participating campuses, by providing planning, onboarding, training and oversight. A training program and comprehensive customer service component will be significant parts of GradCAS for your campus.

Will my school be required to purchase any special equipment/software?

GradCAS is a comprehensive web service for the application and WebAdMIT is a SaaS for programs to use for application configuration and management of the application, evaluation and/or exporting data and PDFs. The service will provide data and training materials in formats that can be used by current/legacy systems already in place. The advent of web-based technology allows for the rapid transfer of data in universal formats. Some schools participating in other CASs upload the CAS information into current systems, while others use the WebAdMIT software provided by the application service to review applications, then transfer the final data to their SIS.

Will I be able to contact applicants during the application process?

GradCAS is configured so as soon as an applicant has expressed interest in a particular program, the institution will have the ability to contact the person. The institution can decide when to contact the applicant — right away to start recruiting, at some point during the application process and/or when waiting for the application to be completed.

Will GradCAS slow down our application process?

GradCAS will not slow down your application process. In fact, most programs will realize an increase in speed to completion and packaging of the application for review as transcripts received by Liaison are validated, scanned (if print) and appended to the submitted application on the same day, then made available to enter your unique workflow process.

How do we receive applicant data?

Data can be retrieved electronically on demand at any time. Additionally, exports can be scheduled to automatically pass data to your CRM service and/or SIS.

What about international students?

International students will apply in the same manner as students in the U.S. Liaison, the provider of GradCAS, has a partnership with World Education Services (WES), the leader in international credential evaluations, to manage/verify transcripts from foreign institutions, or the institution can partner with another transcript evaluation provider or evaluate the transcript in-house.

Frequently Asked Technical Questions

Which CRM, SIS and ERP systems can import CAS data?

All CRM, SIS and ERP systems tailored for institutions of higher education have the ability to import external applicant data via one or more configurable tools native to each system. GradCAS’s “Export Manager” tool provides agnostic, simple-to-configure exports of any subset of applicant data an ERP/SIS system needs, filtered by any criteria schools may choose to apply. These exports are available in numerous formats to simplify the import process for the school. The most common systems used by our university clients include BannerTM, DatatelTM, PeopleSoftTM and JenzabarTM, among others.

Because there is no standard, pre-packaged solution that can perfectly serve the nuances of all schools’ individual customized ERP implementations, each institution is best positioned to execute the final import of CAS data into their SIS or ERP system. That said, given the widespread presence of at least one CAS at most universities, it is very likely that a similar integration has already been done somewhere on your campus and we can connect you with the professionals who have acquired this level of expertise. Liaison’s focus is to make exporting data from WebAdMIT seamless, with several user- and IT-friendly formats, so developing an individualized solution to integrate CAS data with your school’s ERP or SIS system should be relatively straightforward.

How do I create On-Demand Exports in WebAdMIT?

Liaison’s WebAdMIT admissions toolkit provides several utilities and data formats that can be used to import data into an SIS or ERP system. These tools give institutions the ability to:

Create files with only the fields required for use in their integration, rather than adapting to an obscure proprietary data format.

Limit the applicants included in the integration by any criteria required.

Run the export as frequently or infrequently as needed.

Output the files into numerous formats, such as comma-delimited, fixed-width and Excel.

Schedule exports to run at fixed times, and access these exports for download via API. Institutions that have multiple schools or programs participating in a CAS can typically leverage expertise gained during the initial configuration of ERP or SIS tools, making subsequent integrations for additional programs hosted within a CAS much simpler.

What are the options when considering how to configure my university’s SIS or ERP system’s native tools to import applicant data exported from my CAS?

There are two main options for performing the integration. The institution’s IT team who is generally very knowledgeable about their SIS or ERP system can use the data definitions in the Custom Export Layout file provided within WebAdMIT to configure the system’s tool to import the CAS data. Alternatively, a school can contract with a third-party vendor to handle the data import processes for them, as these generally only need to be configured once and undergo light maintenance in future years.

Does Liaison recommend any third-party vendors for integration support services?

Our WebAdMIT support team has helped many universities in performing data integration between our systems and a variety of ERP or SIS systems, and they are more than happy to work with you and your IT staff. For institutions that would prefer a turnkey solution, Liaison International works with SSD Technology Partners/Axiom, who are specialists in performing Banner integrations of CAS data. If you are interested in retaining SSD’s services, please contact Lisa Detwiler at ldetwiler@ssdel.com.

Who do I contact at Liaison for support with CAS data and ERP integration?

Many schools and programs find the integration of CAS data with their ERP system to be straightforward, but Liaison’s team is available to provide support and guidance if necessary. If you have questions or want to share feedback, please contact our WebAdMIT Support Team at WebAdMITSupport@liaisonedu.com.

How does Liaison’s API simplify the export process?

WebAdMIT’s application programming interface (API) will provide IT teams with the following capabilities: